Did you lie to me?She heard the unspoken question. Her eyes burned as she met his gaze unflinchingly and nodded.
He let out a vile oath that shook her—the uncharacteristic loss of control proof of the extent of his anger. “When?” he demanded.
“Not long ago. I only discovered that they lived when you were called away to Dunoon.”
“They?”
Her mouth lifted in a smile. Even in the circumstances, the joy she felt at the thought of her brothers’ survival could not be dampened. “Brian survived as well as Niall.”
She explained how they’d escaped and what had happened after the battle—how they’d fled to Eire and returned only when news of the MacGregor’s surrender reached them. She left out the part of them fighting with the MacGregors, but when she told him of Brian’s recent injury, he no doubt realized how it had occurred.
The whole time she’d been speaking, he’d been watching her face carefully. “I’m happy for you, lass.” She could hear in his voice that he was. “I know how much they mean to you. You must have been overjoyed.”
She blinked back the tears. “I was. I am. I still can’t quite believe it.”
“If you’d told me the truth, I might have been able to prevent them from coming to any harm.”
“I wanted to tell you, but Niall swore me to secrecy.”
“I’m sure he did, but you should never have agreed, knowing that in doing so you would be keeping something like this from me.”
“It’s not that simple. Niall swore that he would leave if I did not agree—and Brian was so ill, I feared that it would kill him. He said that you would throw them in the dungeon.”
“And you believed them?” His voice was deceptively even.
“No.”
He gave her a measured look, challenging her claim with his cool, assessing gaze.
“At least I hoped you wouldn’t,” she admitted. “But I know how you feel about outlaws and your duty to the law.”
“You are my wife,” he said stonily.
She could tell by his voice that her lack of faith had hurt him. “I know that. But there’s also your cousin to consider. I feared what he would do if he discovered they were alive.”
“Your fears, as it turns out, were misplaced.”
“What do you mean?”
“If it was discovered that your brothers lived, Argyll promised to be lenient.”
“But why would he agree to that?”
“He had much to account for.”
She realized what must have happened. Jamie had exacted payment from Argyll for the wrong he’d done him in mercy for her brothers. “You did that for me?”
He nodded.
“You never told me.”
“You never gave me the opportunity.”
Because I didn’t tell him the truth.
“Where are they, Caitrina?”
She hesitated a second too long.
